Effects of Instruction on Japanese Discourse Marker N Desu

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of explicit and implicit instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic knowledge of the Japanese discourse markers n desu and its variant n desu ka. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with pre-, post-, and delayed posttests. The explicit group received instruction including explanations about when the discourse markers are used or not used. The implicit group received instruction that lacked this explanation and requested participants to discover the pragmatic rules of the discourse markers. The results of a discourse completion posttest showed that both explicit and implicit instruction had an immediate positive effect on learning of the target pragmatic features. However, this positive effect did not last until the time of a delayed posttest. The study also found no significant differential effects between explicit and implicit instruction. In addition, the effects of instruction varied depending on the functions of the discourse markers.